Project Number: 3625-11610-001-23
Project Type: Specific Cooperative Agreement

Start Date: Feb 06, 2012
End Date: Jun 30, 2013

Objective:
1. Detection of spray droplets using lidar technologies combined with micrometeorological methods under a range of atmospheric conditions. 2. Evaluation of spray drift for a range of atmospheric conditions. 3. Estimation of the potential for spray drift interception by biobuffers.

Approach:
Data collection will be conducted over soybean canopies at different stages of growth and atmospheric conditions to create a range of potential spray drift patterns from the point of application. Experiments will be conducted in production fields using field scale application equipment with a range of nozzle sizes to create different spray droplet sizes. Measurements will be made with lidar to measure the movement of droplets from the application system and combined with micrometeorological techniques to quantify atmospheric stability. These data will be combined to estimate the horizontal and vertical movement from the release point and then use these data to estimate the potential for interception by biobuffers during the period of application.